boot driver for Backup migration

The possible Restore to another computer (not yet available) is currently only planned from meand I want to understand its effectiveness.- Current status: Notebook1 (N1): bootable system backup with survival kit from N1 is availableRestore should be done on a currently unknown Notebook2 (N2)Call Universal Restore (UR) -> Create Media Builder on CDBoot driver of N2 unknown

- Migration plan: Notebook2 (N2) if available: Boot from N1 system backup and restoreBoot from UR-Media Builder-CDHow does this know the boot driver for N2, since N2 was previously overwritten with the N1 backup?

The possible Restore to another computer (not yet available) is currently only planned from meand I want to understand its effectiveness.- Current status: Notebook1 (N1): bootable system backup with survival kit from N1 is availableRestore should be done on a currently unknown Notebook2 (N2)Call Universal Restore (UR) -> Create Media Builder on CDBoot driver of N2 unknown

- Migration plan: Notebook2 (N2) if available: Boot from N1 system backup and restoreBoot from UR-Media Builder-CDHow does this know the boot driver for N2, since N2 was previously overwritten with the N1 backup?

Siegfried, there are some further considerations for migrating your current OS to a new computer beyond having a backup of the original computer and using Universal Restore.

If your new computer will come pre-installed with Windows 10, then I would strongly recommend making a full backup of that computer with Windows 10 activated before attempting any migration - this will then give you the method of getting back to that starting point should it be necessary.

To migrate Windows 10 from your old to a new computer without hitting activation issues, both computers should be activated for the same edition of Windows 10, i.e. both have Home or both have Pro etc. Activation is mainly based on the hardware signature, so the migrated OS would pick up the activation from the new copy of Windows on the new computer.

Ideally, both computers should use the same BIOS mode for booting into Windows, i.e. both use UEFI - the BIOS mode can be found by running msinfo32 from Windows. If your older computer uses Legacy for the BIOS mode, then you will need to ensure that the restore to the new computer is done after booting that new computer from the Acronis Rescue Media (or Survival Kit) in UEFI BIOS mode, as this is needed to migrate your backup from MBR to GPT partition format.

Another consideration is the BIOS SATA controller mode of operation for the internal boot HDD or SSD drive - this too needs to be the same if possible else additional drivers are likely to be needed by Universal Restore or even the Acronis Rescue Media depending on the type of drive in the new computer. If you are migrating from a standard SATA SSD or HDD to a computer with a new NVMe M.2 SSD drive then this can be a requirement, especially if the drive uses RAID for the SATA controller mode.

Boot the target system from the Rescue / Survival Kit media in the correct BIOS mode.

Restore the backup from the Source system to the Target system drive.

Shutdown, remove any boot media and external drive.

Test booting into Windows on the new computer to see if this will succeed without needing to use the Universal Restore media / application. Windows 10 is far better than earlier versions of Windows at handling changes of hardware.

If needed, shutdown, boot from the AUR media and apply any changes / new drivers as needed then repeat steps 6 & 7.

Siegfried, it is not activation that will have any requirement for new device drivers but if you are migrating an existing OS to new hardware for which it has no current drivers installed.

The actual drivers needed will depend on both the new hardware and also the OS you will be using with that hardware. You would need to go to the computer makers support web site to check what device drivers are available for download for your selected Windows OS version.

I would recommend considering upgrading your existing Windows 8.1 computer to Windows 10 to make this migration a lot easier to manage. Any new computer is most likely to be shipped with or ready for Windows 10 and the makers support site may only provide device drivers for Windows 10.

Take a full disk backup of your hard drive "as is" right now (or before you upgrade anyway). Safety net, recovery point, whatever you want to call it, it's your ace in the hole to get back to where you are now if things go badly. This will mean ensuring you have a good and usable Acronis rescue boot disk (CD or small USB thumb drive) and that you can boot with it and detect your existing hard drive and back it up to another hard drive.

If so, then proceed with the Windows 10 upgrade in the article Steve provided (that is super nifty and going into my favorites). Windows 10 is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better with driver compatibility than Windows 7 and often has all the drivers you need to be bootable right out of the box. There have been very few instances where I could not boot an upgrade machine to Windows 10 just with the generic drivers. If it boots, then you can get to the Internet and run windows update and it will grab any other missing or updated drivers for your system. Often times, that's all you need to do.

I understand some people are leery to make the jump from Win 7 to Win 10, but time is running out on security updates for Win 7 anyway so it won't be long. If there is a way to get a "free" upgrade from an existing license, take advantage of it. I love Windows 10 compared to 7. Yeah, there are some tweaks I like to do, but overall it is really a much nicer experience once you get used to it. I just disable things like Cortana and some of the potential "phone home" settings in Windows 10, but that's just me.

Main thing... make your Acronis rescue media. Ensure you can boot it. Ensure it sees your main (existing OS) hard drive and back it up completely to a USB drive or something else that's easy to use again. Remove the backup drive and rescue media for safe keeping. Then attempt your Windows 10 upgrade. If something goes south (let's say you have a super sensitive driver that Windows 10 can't find - but not likely), then boot your rescue media and restore your backup to how things were.

******Better yet, if you have the means or money, buy another drive to restore your backup too and swap out the original hard drive with it as well. Then, not only do you have the backup, but also the original drive you can go back to. As long as you take the right precautions, there is no harm and trying different things out.

That said, knowing your system information (make, model, bios version) would come in handy if you are in need of specific drivers. Like Steve said though, Windows 10 is likely to solve those types of problems on its own though.